Israeli ministers Tuesday laid the cornerstone for a new project to build an additional 350 units in the Beit El settlement near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, Education Minister Yoav Gallant and Regional Cooperation Minister Ofir Akunis along with Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin and other Knesset members participated in the ceremony to build the new settlement units, according to Israeli Channel 20.
"Settlements and (the) land of Israel are more important than any person or any political situation," Edelstein, who is a member of the ruling Likud Party, told the ceremony.
Gallant, for his part, said his government has solidified Jewish settlement construction in the Beit El settlement, which he described as an "Israeli city where (our) ancestors lived."
The Israeli government had approved the construction of the 350 new units in the Beit El settlement at the end of 2020.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967 and has increasingly expanded the size and number of its settlements there.
There are currently some 650,000 Israelis living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank amid an estimated 3.1 million Palestinians.
Governments around the world see the settlements as one of the biggest obstacles to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
